but it's not perfect
Yet.
Perfectionism; very much an uphill battle, and something most creatives have to a certain degree. When the majority of your life is based on visuals it's hard to let go of the small things that could make that 0.01% difference that only your self-depreciating eyes can see.
Social media is a huge culprit in this web of self-doubt that your work isn't up to spec. Instagram especially heightens this desire to post all of your best work in an effort to prove yourself to other users on the platform, users who really just don't matter. One of the few beauties of social media is the ability to make it your own and to curate something really unique - the downside of this is your purpose for being on the platform will inevitably be different to 70% of its other users. When seeing someone use the platform for self-advertisement by posting their best work, being highly active with followers and gaining attention, you can start to question if you really should just be using the platform as, in my case, a lease of inspiration and a place to post updates. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle for followers when there are benefits for different mile stones; to apply for certain jobs, and even artists residencies, you must have over a certain follower count - in some cases 20,000+ are required to even be considered. I have to remind myself that for some people social media is a job in itself, and others use it instead of a website. Daisy Buchanan wrote an article for the Guardian that looks into the detrimental effects of this new-age perfectionism on the mental health of millennials.
One of the main issues that lay alongside with perfectionism is the need for constant reassurance that what you're doing is in fact correct. Unsure if you're a perfectionist and you're a student? The endless email threads with tutors should be an indication. Making work for other people just amplifies this multidimensional perfectionism; wanting to get a good grades (a desire that intensifies in the education system every year), impress your tutor, and eagerness to attract compliments from peers. We may not like to admit it, but at the start of university it’s all a competition between students.
The flipside of this is the inability to let ideas go. I think it's fair to say we've all had an idea that we couldn't part with, whether that's something we couldn't leave alone after it was finished, or something we couldn't get off the ground, but refused to abandon.
This also comes into actually starting an idea as well - often, starting a project creates more leads. Maia Pavey talks about this in the podcast (episode 3); whenever she feels stuck or lost in a project, she knows going out and shooting will solve the issue. In my case, perfectionism normally prevented this. Producing work in response to feeling lost in a project can sometimes do more damage than not, and if I don't get what I want from the images then it can send me into a spiral of shame. Doing the work sooner allows you to spot faults earlier in the process though, and prevents a panic further down the line and closer to the deadline (come on, we all leave it to the last minute). The 5 Second Rule actually eliminates the time bracket that these self-doubting and perfectionist ideas form in. By shortening the time between thought and action, heart and instinct becomes the decider, not emotion. This university term has actually seen me doing this, and it has leaded me to creating a project that I'm genuinely excited to make work for and show.
In the end, all we can do is set strategies to foil the perfectionist inside us. The push-back against social media and the effects it has on mental health gains more traction every day, and we subconsciously become more aware of its effects on us every time we log in.
